The Huawei P10 is more than just an incremental update

Huawei has unveiled the P10 and P10 Plus, their new flagship smartphone duo to kick off 2017. Replacing the previous P9, the new P10 series turns things up to 11 with a new sleek metal body, a higher resolution display, larger battery and perhaps most importantly an upgraded camera system called the Leica Dual Camera 2.0 Pro Edition.

P10

The Huawei P10 now gets a 5.1″ display that still pushes a Full HD resolution. To power the device, Huawei is putting in the same Kirin 960 processor from the Mate 9 series and it comes with of 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage (expandable via microSD up to 256GB).

Taking its photography credentials up a notch, Huawei has upgraded the primary camera setup on the P10 to the Leica Dual-Camera 2.0. This means you get the 20MP monochrome + 12MP RGB sensor from the Mate 9 which is a pretty nice upgrade especially since you get optical image stabilisation.

The front gets an 8MP selfie shooter with an f/1.9 aperture lens. It’s also got an adaptive selfie camera that adjusts the zoom based on the number of users (for e.g., wider for more, narrower for less). Keeping the lights on is a non-removable 3,200mAh battery which charges quickly via USB Type-C with support for Huawei’s SuperCharge fast-charging technology. Huawei says 30 minutes on the plug will give you a full day’s usage.

The overall exterior is slightly tweaked for more curves and you’ll notice the rounded corners when compared to the P9. The biggest physical change is the fingerprint sensor as Huawei is now opting for a front-facing unit which is embedded underneath the surface. This is similar to Xiaomi’s Mi 5S‘s ultrasonic fingerprint sensor.

P10 Plus

If you’re looking for something bigger, the P10 Plus comes with a 5.5″ display. The internal hardware is similar with its smaller sibling with a Kirin 960 processor mated to either 4GB or 6GB of RAM plus 64GB or 128GB of storage respectively (also expandable via microSD up to 256GB). The major difference is the new display — unlike the P10 that does Full HD, this one takes it up to a 2K panel for even crisper details.

Much like the Mate 9, the new Kirin 960 processor will come with Huawei’s Machine Learning Algorithm to make sure your new phone stays fast even after a long period of use. Huawei’s new P10 Plus also features 4.5G connectivity which can get you speeds of up to 600Mbps on CAT 12. Battery life also gets bumped up to 3,750 mAh which is definitely significant.

EMUI 5.1 on both the P10 and P10 Plus also lets the phone create auto-generated video stories. Huawei worked closely with action cam maker GoPro to make this a reality. Camera-wise, the P10 Plus also gets an upgrade to Leica Dual Camera 2.0 Pro edition. It’s the same sensor as the P10, but with a pair of upgraded f/1.8 aperture Leica Summilux-H lenses.

Both the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus comes in Mystic Silver, Rose Gold, Graphite Black, Dazzling Gold, Dazzling Blue and Greenery colours. The Huawei P10 will be priced at EUR649 (around RM3,043) while the P10 Plus is priced at EUR699 (around RM3,278), for the 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant, and EUR799 (around RM3,746) for the 6GB RAM + 128GB storage variant. These phones will be available from March 2017 onwards and Malaysia is among the first wave of countries to receive this new device.

Overall, the Huawei P10 is a pretty significant upgrade from the outgoing P9. Not only does it have better specs, it’s also got a better camera system, improved hardware and a higher resolution display (on the P10 Plus). We weren’t expecting the company to do anything too radical with the P10 because the P9 was already such a solid smartphone. However, we’re glad they gave it more than just a minor incremental update.